Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: fall


by 21 Comments

Penny takes a walk

Hey guys, it’s Penny here! Guess what? Mom and I had the best walk ever yesterday! I’d been asking for attention for awhile.

Let’s go on a walk, mom!

Mostly she told me to go lay down cause she was busy. So I gave her my big pathetic eyes and it worked!

Mom! Hey mom!

Suddenly mom was packing me up into the back of the car and we were off to parks unknown!

This is at Davis Lake Overlook Park, or as we call it Katie’s Park II.

We went to one of Katie’s parks. I had grand plans of taking you somewhere different, somewhere you’d never been before, but mom said I needed to check reality and until I got my own drivers license I was stuck with where she was willing to take me.

Whatever mom.

Mom got all sentimental. She said Katie sat right here in a beam of light a few years ago.

Anyway, this is a very hilly and fun park that I love to explore. And we had a beautiful day for it, so I was happy to be there.

This is a pretty big hill, mom. Are you sure you’re up for it?

We were looking for autumn color. At least that’s what mom said. I wasn’t at all sure I knew what autumn color was.

Mom said the early evening light made these leaves on a brand new baby oak tree glow.

Eventually mom said I shouldn’t worry about it, that she’d find the color for me this year. But she, of course, reminded me that Katie was very good at finding beautiful things for her Walktobers and next year, when I was three, I’d be responsible for my own color search.

There might be some color over there, mom!

We’ll see mom. I’m sort of into good smells and not so much into pretty stuff. I’m a different girl, and sometimes mom forgets that.

An aster blossom just unfolding.

Anyway, we walked up and down the hills into the deep woods. Mom even tried to turn around once, way before I was ready to go back and I told her no way!

Mom wanted to turn around, but I vetoed that idea. It’s MY Walktober!

So she smiled and said, “whatever you want, sweetie,” and we wandered further into the woods. Isn’t my (um, Katie’s) woods beautiful?

I had such a good time I couldn’t stop smiling!

There wasn’t much color, but mom figured that’s because of the drought we’ve had. Most of our color is brown. I don’t really see a problem with that, cause most of my color is brown!

Look! I match!

On our way back to the car I took mom on a little diversion. A path out into the marshland that’s closed all summer was open and I wanted to go down that path real bad.

Mom dropped the leash and let me go at my own speed.

It leads to a small lake which is part of the Shiawasee River (it’s only a stream here) and on the other side of that lake is the backside of our little town. Maybe someday mom will take me on a walk downtown. I know, it’s only got one block, but you never know…right?

It’s hard to see our little town, way over there.

Anyway, mom let me walk all by myself down that grassy path toward the lake. Then I figured out she wasn’t attached to me and I lost my confidence. I’m not quite ready to wonder too far from mom yet.

Mom says that’s a good thing.

I’ll wait for you, mom.

So that was my unexpeted walk on a beautiful October Sunday afternoon. I’m calling it my official Walktober and I hope you enjoyed Katie’s park and our walk there.

After my walk. I am a happy, happy girl.

We look forward to seeing all your Walktobers when mom puts together the recap post in November. In the meantime, link your posts to the Official Walktober Post just like me! You’ve still got plenty of time to get a Walktober in! Walk, skip, hop or drive somewhere, take a picture or two (or more!) and write up a post. We all want to see where you’ve been!

Talk later,

Your park explorer girl, Penny.


by 58 Comments

Official Walktober Post

Hey! It’s official! It’s time to stand up, step out, get going, and plan your walk or drive or skip or hop or swim or jog for this year’s Walktober!

These guys get overlooked all the time.

Take us somewhere that you love to go, or somewhere you’ve never been before. Tell us (and show us with pictures if you can) about it and why you’re happy you went, or why you’re disappointed in your chosen place. Do you think we should stop and visit it if we’re ever in the neighborhood?

Solo sunbathing.

Tell us all your hopes and dreams. OK…maybe that’s too much information, but tell us about your adventure, where it is and what it’s like, and then link it to this post.

Wood ducks

Early in November I’ll assemble a post with links to all of your posts, and then everyone can come along on your walk, hop, jump, skip…well….you get the idea.

Common yellowthroat. I waited a long time for him to come pose for me.

So let’s set the official Walktober dates, OK? Because if you’re like me you’ll let it go until the last minute or you’ll forget about it all together if there aren’t specific dates. Right? Right!

Mama deer taking a break from parenting. Her youngster is to the left behind the trees.

So how about our official Walktober kick off on October 1 (who will be our first entry?) and end by October 31? That gives us the entire month of October to get outside and enjoy ourselves. I hope you all have at least one perfect day.

A bluejay lets his friends know about the treats down below.

I have a concert to play on the 28th, and dog rally trials on the 24th and 31st, so I’m really busy at the end of the month. I better not wait to get my Walktober done!

Swans in morning light.

The pictures in this post, except the last one, are all from a walk I took a few weeks ago at my favorite bird park, Kensington, with an updated Nikon camera, focus set to latch onto birds eyes.I was pretty happy with it.

You just know he’s going for the peanut.

If you have questions about Walktober let me know. I’ll get back to you as quick as I can.

Meanwhile, Ms. Penny is giving serious consideration to where she would like to take you for her version of Walktober. She invites any other dogs (or cats or birds or lizards!) to go on a walk and tell us all about it too. She thinks hopping or skipping would be too hard and she doesn’t have a drivers license.

She says it’s not that difficult to hyjack your mom or dad’s blog.

This is one option, mom, but I’d like to take the folks somewhere more exotic.

She does it all the time. She says parents are so gullible.


by 33 Comments

Walktober (or maybe Drivetober) 2024

Where to go for my Walktober, where to go? It’s been weighing on my mind.

I’ve done so many, taken you to visit all my local favorites, some of them multiple times. You and I have walked in Detroit along the riverfront, and in my own backyard, and on the beach of Lake Michigan.

This year I wanted to take you somewhere we hadn’t been before, so how about Tawas State Park? It’s on the eastern side of Michigan, on Lake Huron and only about three hours from me. Plus it’s ‘up north’ so it’s just got to be beautiful by definition.

I decided to do a combination walk and drive for this annual Walktober post. That way you’ll get to see the most stuff from my 6 hour adventure.

I left on the spur of the moment, last Sunday afternoon, after I had attended a Fun Run rally competition with Penny. It was our first together and deserves a whole post to itself. Let’s just say after that experience I needed a good, long, pretty drive.

Without a puppy.

Initially the trees weren’t that colorful, mostly yellow, and I was concerned that I had missed the show. But as I got further north, and stopped at a little roadside park, I noticed things were looking a bit better.

And by the time I could actually see Lake Huron the color was starting to pop!

When I got into the park I noticed there were a lot of cars in the lot given it’s definitely off season. But as I climbed over the low dune to the beach I could see why.

The place was crawling with kite boarders!

I walked on the beach for a bit, braving the brisk wind and blowing sand, watching the kiteboarding folks skim over and above the waves.

That was fun, and made for some challenging photography, but I had planned on walking the birding path I’d heard about, up near the lighthouse. So I headed over that way.

The wind was so brisk that I doubted I’d see any birds, but I stubbornly headed up the path because that was why I had come!

It led me right up to the Lighthouse, which was pretty, but I wasn’t, for some reason, excited about exploring that.

I kept along the birding trail, never hearing or seeing a bird of any kind. In fact the trail was becoming quite boring. Then I spotted a narrow footpath heading back through the beach grass.

That was definitely more my style. The wind had played sculpture with the day’s footprints, and I liked how the lowering sun made the sand look, so I stopped for a moment to take a picture on my way back to the shore.

Coming off the dune and back onto the beach I saw there were even more kiteboarders riding the wind.

And I couldn’t help but notice how the sun made the water silver.

Up ahead of me was a little spit of land, poking out into Lake Huron. Last time, more than 15 years ago, when I’d been on this beach there had been many, longer spits of sand, but this year there was only this one that I could see.

If you stood at the base of it you could see the water being blown into shore from both sides. I thought the combination of waves, light and sand was just beautiful.

But what about the kiteboarders, you say? What were they doing as the wind kicked up higher and the sun began to descend?

Well, they were doing what kiteboarders do. They were racing back and forth across the water and leaping high above the waves.

It was sooo much fun to watch.

But after awhile I realized I needed to head home, even though I was having too much fun watching all the action. So I said goodbye to the lighthouse and Tawas State Park and got back on the road.

But wait! Is that the end of my Drive/Walktober? Is that all there was to see? Well of course not! There’s still that three hour drive through farmland on the way home. What do you think I’ll see?

Here’s a hint:

Well, this is getting long. Maybe you better take a break now, at intermission so to speak. Or get a coffee. At least stretch a little.

I’ll wait.

Welcome back to Part II of my 2024 Drive/Walktober. On US 23 the trees were glorious. So pretty I had to stop a few times and pull over to admire them.

And the folks that live here? I’m only a little jealous of the fact they live among all those beautiful trees while looking out the back of their house at Lake Huron!

Of course I had to turn off US 23 a few times because I saw pretty barns in the distance. In the fall sunlight they were even more beautiful than they’d be in the summer at noon.

And sometimes it was just the light on a field that caught my eye.

But to be honest it was mostly the barn.

Or sometimes an old house…

…or the sign at an abandoned speedway.

I turned around to get that image. I just couldn’t NOT!

I had to go around a few blocks to get back to this grain elevator too. Something about an old truck under the grain chute.

So that is the end of my Drive/Walktober. Almost. By the time I shot the old truck it was getting late. The sun was definitely on a quicker slant to the horizon. Plus I had to go to the bathroom. So I stopped at the Bay City rest area. And there, I found the most magical ending to my Walktober adventure.

I bet just about anything that this last image made you smile. It did me then and it does today. After all that driving and walking and shooting I found my image in a rest stop on the way home.

Isn’t that just the way it goes.

If you have a Walktober in mind, go out and take a few pictures (or a lot) and post your blog linking to the original post about Walktobers and I’ll gather them all in early November and share them all with everybody!

Questions? Just ask!


by 50 Comments

Look to the sky

We have been so lucky, up here in Michigan, (and sometimes all the way down to Georgia!) to be able to see the Northern Lights quite frequently this past summer and into fall.

May 2024, somewhere in Michigan farm country.

Of course even if the lights are dancing, the weather doesn’t always cooperate. Lots of evenings the skies are obstructed with clouds and you can only dream about what might be happening up there.

May 10, 2024.

And of course you have to actually go outside to a dark place to see them. And even then you mostly can’t see them with your naked eyes, you need your phone or a camera to get a better view.

Amazing color in May.

In May there was a huge aurora storm above us and I was lucky enough to take my sister and head north to see them. We ended up on a random dirt road in front of a farmer’s house shooting the amazing lights as they danced across the sky.

More of the May experience.

Last weekend there was some evidence that a big light storm would be arriving, but night after night nothing happened. Then Wednesday night, with clouds rolling in, people in my general area were starting to post pictures they’d taken from their own yards of colorful northern lights.

I leapt out of bed, and headed to my own back yard. There were clouds, but enough open spaces that I saw this.

October 6, from my yard looking over my neighbor’s house.

It wasn’t beautiful, no special location, the lights of my neighbor’s house spread across the image. But I saw them. I saw them in my own backyard without driving across the state.

I was thrilled.

I was especially thrilled because I took that shot with my phone, and had only just learned how to use my phone at night. My regular camera had been shipped back to Nikon as a trade-in for a new version of the Z series.

Thursday of last week my new camera arrived, and coincidently notices of potential northen lights grew louder and louder as the day went on.

I tried to learn all the differences between the new camera and what I was used to using. And when it got dark I went over to Katie’s park and set up near her pond.

I was hoping for color reflected in the pond…but a layer of invasive plants covered the surface of the water.

I was not disappointed. There was a definite pink tinge to the northern sky.

It wasn’t always bright, but it was pretty and surrounded the Big Dipper.

There were obnoxious lights in the parking lot, and I lowered my tripod as low as I could to minimize the light pollution.

But mostly I just watched the sky. As my eyes adjusted I could tell the lights were there, but I couldn’t see much. Sometimes I could see a few pillars of light.

Sometimes the colors obscured the stars.

And once I turned the camera over to the east a bit, because I thought maybe something was there. But looking on the back of the camera, I didn’t see anything interesting, so I turned it back to the pond.

See that green waving at me from over there on the right?

I was wrong. There were actually green waves over there, but I didn’t see them until I processed the images days later.

I was out there from 8 until shortly after 9. I wasn’t prepared with hand warmers, or a hat or gloves. You wouldn’t have thought you’d need them, but on this clear night as the moon came up behind me, the air chilled.

The lights began to fad. I didn’t realize the green was ramping up.

By 9 I was cold and my husband and I ambled back to the car under the fading colors that still filled the sky. I went to bed and dreamed about starry nights and dancing lights. In the morning I found out that Mother Nature has a sense of humor, because she put up a magnificent light show with curtains of color that started about 10. While I was sleeping.

Yep.

In order to really see the northern lights you need to prepare, take warm clothes, bring extra batteries, some snacks, a chair and your good camera and on top of all that, hope for clear skies.

When I got home I went out back and took a picture of the moon. Because it was beautiful too.

And if all that lines up…you’re gonna see a real show!

I’m not disappointed, I was so happy to be out there at all. I’m thrilled to have had the experience and to share it with my husband.

Right overhead, in May.

But I’m secretly hoping to get one more chance this season.


by 32 Comments

Just do it

You know how sometimes you sign up to do something and when the day and time comes around you sort of wish you hadn’t because staying home and doing nothing in particular seems so much easier than getting up and out?

Yea.

Saturday morning I was signed up to go on a guided hike at one of Katie’s parks. I have been on a couple of these walks, and I always enjoy them, usually learn something, and am always glad I went.

Still.

Saturday morning it seemed to take a gargantuan effort to get myself up and fed and showered and out the door in order to meet over at the park by 10 a.m. Seriously, 10 a.m. seemed early to me. Even though for 30+ years I was at work every weekday and often weekends, by 8.

This is what retirement has done to me. It has turned me into a sloth.

Anyway.

By 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning a group of about a dozen people had gathered in the designated parking lot. We all set off up a hill to our first stop on the hike, the Davis Lake overlook. Our guide, the manager of parklands in our township, explained how the lake was formed and the importance of the hills and wetlands to the formation of the Shiawasee River which begins in our township.

At this park we have something called a ‘fen’ which is somewhat unusual. That’s a wet prairie-like landscape which is host to any number of rare insects, plants and even fish.

The park manager talked about all the partnerships our township has with researchers at universities around the world, adding that the research grants helps to pay for managing the land.

We went further into the forest where we stopped and looked at the tree canopy and the understory and the ground cover. He talked about different plants that grow in the forest when they have enough light and space to thrive.

He said a healthy forest would have a variety of trees, and within a variety, several different ages. He’s working to make sure we have young trees coming up to replace the older ones that have been around for over 100 years.

Then we moved out onto the fen, where we took a quick right, off the path, to see a wildflower, the gentian, a small, blue, fringed flower that blooms in the fall. I’ve seen other blue gentian flowers, growing on rocks along the Great Lakes, but I had no idea we had them in my very own neighborhood!

For me that little blue flower was the highlight of the walk, but we saw lots of other plants too. Our guide showed us the dying plants, the seed pods, and those hanging on with a bit of color. He described what they would look like next spring, and urged us to come along on the spring hike next year.

I, of course, have visited this park often, with Katie and now with Penny. It’s a beautiful place to wander through woods and meadows, around glacial lakes and up and over hills. The part I hiked Saturday, with the group, is unofficially named after Katie around our house. Penny has her own part of the same park, just a bit north of where we were. I took her there Saturday afternoon and we had a great time. But I’ll let her tell you about that when she’s ready.

Saturday morning our group had a beautiful day, with a bright blue sky, warm temperatures and a little breeze. It was such a wonderful walk, fun to be out with other like minded people. We all learned a little something and had fun doing it.

It was a reminder to me that when you sign up for something, during an optimistic moment, you should follow through and get yourself to the event. Even if you have grown into a sloth.

Because if you do, you’re going to be sooooo happy that you did.

I guarantee it.

(Now. You might think this would be a great Walktober. And it would be, but it’s not. I don’t think anyway. We’ll see. I hope you are all thinking about where you’d like to take us on YOUR Walktober coming to a blog near you sometime between October 17 and the end of the month!)


by 19 Comments

You can’t ignore me, mom!

So, once again, you may have detected a noted lack of Penny posts here on my mom’s blog.

I guess I shouldn’t feel all that bad. She didn’t even tell you that she went to Washington DC 10 days ago, did she. Nope. Obviously you guys aren’t top tier friends either. (I’m JOKING!!!)

Mom says it’s just that she’s really busy and hasn’t had time to write about every little thing. Every little thing? I ask you. Am I a little thing??

Actually I’m a quite large thing. I’m oversized for a sheltie, bigger than Katie was, but mom says that just means there’s more of me to love!

And did I tell you that she and I snuggle just about every single morning, most of the time with me sitting on top of her? Yea. I guess Mom is OK after all.

Anyway.

I’m supposed to tell you that Mom and Debbie over at Domer Mom have decide that we will in fact have a Walktober this year, and Mom will collect all your links on her blog and do a summary post at the end.

Mom said I need to hurry up and announce it since October is knocking on our door. Wait a minute, I have to go bark hysterically cause that’s what I do when anyone knocks on our door!

….OK. I’m back…

Mom says I can pick the official Walktober dates, because I’m really smart and she likes to keep me engaged. Otherwise I’m off doing stuff she doesn’t want me to do, but that’s another post.

So I think the official dates for the 2024 Walktober will be October 17 through October 31st. That way you have two weeks to plan and two full weeks to go on your walk (or ride, or jog, or drive, or skip or hop) and blog about it!

Of course, if you need to do yours a little early that’s fair, and if you need an extra couple days at the end just let us know. Mom will put everything together in her blog in early November.

And she says to tell you she’ll do an official kickoff to Walktober near or on October 17th so that you can all link to that post when you do yours!

Mom says if you have any questions just ask. She and I will do our best to answer and explain better. My excuse for rambling is that I’m not even two yet! So I get distracted easily.

Squirrel!

Pictures in this post are from several walks Mom and I have been on lately, cause daddy has been doing scary noisy things in the basement. Heck I didn’t even know we HAD a basement until now! Daddy says when it’s finished I’ll get to explore down there! Too bad it won’t be done by the end of October or I’d take you on a tour for my Walktober!

HEY MOM! MOM! MOMOMOMOMOMOMOMOMOM!!!! Where am I going to take the nice people on my Walktober? You better figure it out soon! It’s a priority, mother!

Signing off for now,

Your Walktober Ambassador,

Penny the Hiking Dog


by 35 Comments

Name this bird

Sitting at the dinner table last night I was watching the birds come for their own suppers. I had spread some black oilers on the deck railing and refreshed their bath water in anticipation of watching them while we ate.

Hmmm….who’s this little lady?

The fresh water was a big draw as any number of birds showed up for a quick bath. Then this bird arrived. She didn’t look like any of my regulars.

Well, she likes oilers, that’s a clue.

Bigger than a gold finch, about the size of a warbler, but not a yellow warbler.

She kept an eye on me but didn’t budge.

Greenish gold with darker wings and a little tuft on white near her shoulder.

After she ate she hopped on over to the bathing area.

Luckily my camera was right behind me on the kitchen counter, and the bird wasn’t upset by my reaching for it.

One by one she told the bathing birds to get lost.

All these shots are through a window, with reflections splashed across the image.

Then she hopped in for her own bath.

I think, based on my Michigan bird book, it’s a female Evening Grosbeak.

She had a nice, long bath.

We’re not supposed to have them around here, though they were here a couple of winters ago. Mostly they live way up north. So it could be something else.

And then she was gone.

What do you think?